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Publisher's Summary

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in "a new era of responsibility". It is a story that follows the journey of Barack Obama, who rose as the country fell, and offers the first full portrait of his tumultuous presidency.

Wall Street found that straying from long-standing principles of transparency, accountability, and fair dealing opened a path to stunning profits. Obama’s determination to reverse that trend was essential to his ascendance, especially when Wall Street collapsed during the fall of an election year and the two candidates could audition for the presidency by responding to a national crisis. But as he stood on the stage in Grant Park, a shudder went through Barack Obama. He would now have to command Washington, tame New York, and rescue the economy in the first real management job of his life.

The new president surrounded himself with a team of seasoned players - like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner - who had served a different president in a different time. As the nation’s crises deepened, Obama’s deputies often ignored the president’s decisions - “to protect him from himself” - while they fought to seize control of a rudderless White House. Bitter disputes - between men and women, policy and politics - ruled the day. The result was an administration that found itself overtaken by events as, year to year, Obama struggled to grow into the world’s toughest job and, in desperation, take control of his own administration.

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ron Suskind introduces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers - and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you’ve never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation’s two capitals - New York and Washington, one of private gain, the other of public purpose - in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America’s future.

The narrator sounds like he should be narrating a detective story or The Twilight Zone. That actually is kind of nice, but he neglected to learn how to pronounce key terms such as "tranche" and AXA and keeps confusing "CDSs" [as in credit default swaps--complex and risky derivative insturments] for CDs [as in either certificates of deposit or the things music and/or data are recorded on].

Ron Suskind (A Hope in the Unseen, The Way of the World, The Price of Loyalty, The One Percent Doctrine) has produced a wonderful new book titled Confidence Men. Suskin in this book relates how the Obama White House dealt with the economic crisis that overshadowed the administration when coming to office. This is one page turner of a story. Suskind is fair to Bush and critical of Bush when it is appropriate. He is critical of Obama and fair to the President when that is the right thing to do. Most of all, I appreciate his sympathetic tone toward the President. The narrative is unsettling and disconcerting, but Obama comes across as a well meaning if someone inept leader. Wait! This book isn’t a bash job on Obama nor is it an apology for him. Suskind just reports what he found. Every tax payer would do well to read this volume to understand how the decision making process came down during that era. It is – well – scary. Based upon hundreds of hours of interviews with over 200 people, this book is well worth the reader’s time. Read it and make your own decision. The reading of James Lurie is very good.

This is the best book I have read on the subject of what went on behind the scenes during the first two years of Obama's presidency, what happened with healthcare, the economy and why his popularity flagged. The narration by James Lurie is just superb, I have listened to it four times and always hear something new. It is very informative and entertaining.

This is a no apologies approach to descriptions of how the administration dealt with the economy when it became clear it would dominate the first few years of the Obama presidency. Obama and his staff members are described, criticized, and praised. If you wonder why certain policy decisions went down the way they did, this will help you to understand.

Obama's economic IQ is low and he's a prideful person who would prefer not to show weakness...especially in front of his staff members. After all he is the President. Unfortunately, his staff didn't have the option of being able to defer the economic decision making until the POTUS had time to get up to speed. As Larry Summers put it to another senior staff member "you realize we're home alone here."

The economic team was poorly organized and suffered from personality conflicts. The roles were not well described, and that delayed policy decisions and made the whole process difficult. Obama sorely needed the skills and experience this team had to offer, but he lacked any real experience of how to lead and or manage these highly qualified specialists. Summers in particular seemed to cause the most friction. He was overbearing, unable to accept responsibility for error and seemed to project an aura of "too bright to fail." Basically, he didn't play well with others.

The banking negotiations were poorly handled. The government was long on leverage, and the bankers knew it. But the government surprised them by not asking for the obvious in return for the money. Same way with the Wall Street crowd. With all the complaining about compensation packages, you would think the Street would have to show some restraint. To the delight of the Street execs, the threat was leveled, but it was all for show. It just didn't have the teeth to stick.

Net net, the book describes how a team of very well intentioned, bright, hard working people try to solve very large, complex and important economic puzzles for the benefit of their country.

This is a book well worth your time. You'll see just how connected at the hip our banks, government and Wall Street really are. Ron Suskind is a Democrat and he writes with his Democrat perspective, but he is for the most part even handed. I think he may be a little kinder, more forgiving and definitely more understanding of these people than I am, but he is fair.

He seems to conclude that the man who ran for president (Barack Obama) just has not delivered. Because he had higher expectations and hopes for Obama in the begining--and more than I ever had--he probably had trouble bringing this book to light.

So, while I don't agree with all of Mr. Suskind's beliefs and premises regarding the size and role of government and philosophy of economics, I appreciate how much he has put before the American people in a good read.

What made the experience of listening to Confidence Men the most enjoyable?

You learn a lot about American Economy and financial matters.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Barack Obama

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It is imposible to get this information at one sitting. It took me 2 weeks of intensive listenig. Run Suskind is an outstanding political writer. I learned a lot about economy and about the complexity of running this country. I lesten to most of Ron Suskind books ob Audible.com.

Any additional comments?

It was a long and extensive venture into politics and economy of our country

What is so disturbing about this book is Suskind's assessment that Obama is no task master and lacks courage and conviction. Further, Obama should have read Sutton's "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't " prior or forming his team - he would never hired Larry Summers.

After starting this book in hard cover I was delighted to find an audible.com version of it. Unfortunately, although the book is interesting and worth reading, the performance is so horrible that you start to hate the book. I did not think someone could be so dull in their reading of interesting event in our history but this audio version proves me wrong. I almost fell asleep listening to it in the car today. If I had insomnia, this performance would be a great cure but it is not a way to get the content of this otherwise important book.